Noeteca, Best Wine Bar in San Francisco!
Tucked away in the heart of San Francisco’s Noe Valley, is a place the SF Guardian dubbed “The Best Wine Bar” in San Francisco. Noeteca, located at 1551 Dolores street, is truly a neighborhood hot spot and hidden gem. The bar/restaurant itself is fairly small and is surrounded by homes (not other businesses), making it feel very personal and connected to the neighborhood.
I visited Noeteca for the first time a couple weeks back while working on a sales trip in San Francisco. The wine rep I was working with took me there for lunch because they had been serving our 2009 Reserve Syrah with great success and might be looking to add some more wines to their list. After having a delicious lunch, we poured a wide array of Castoro wines for the manager/wine buyer Alex and chatted about wine, food and food and wine. He was very nice and very engaged in the story of Castoro as were we in the story of Noeteca. After tasting through the wines, Alex decided to add the Muscat Canelli to the dessert wine list (a very good choice if you ask me). As we finished up our lunch and said our thank you’s, something told me I would be coming back sooner than later.
Lo and behold, a couple weeks later, one of my girlfriend’s best friends was coming to San Francisco for a week (she lives in China) and wanted to meet up. After sending e-mails back and forth we decided to meet her and her boyfriend for dinner in the city the night after they arrived. Since they were relatively unfamiliar with the area, it was our duty to find a good spot for dinner. After brainstorming for about 30 seconds I knew exactly where we were going . . . Noeteca!
When we arrived, the small restaurant was quite packed with couples and groups of friends winding down the day with delicious entrees and full glasses of wine. While waiting for a table to open up we all ordered a glass of wine and started catching up. Before too long we had been seated and orders had been placed. The food was fabulous and the wine, 2009 Castoro Cellars Reserve Syrah, couldn’t have been a better match! After dinner we topped off the evening with dessert, accompanied by a glass each of Castoro Muscat Canelli.
All in all the experience was great and I highly recommend this San Francisco gem to anyone who finds themselves wandering the Noe Valley. If you’re lucky they may still be pouring Castoro but even without it this place is well worth the visit!
Cheers,
Luke
